I finished!

I was right it was COLD!!! I ran with the outfit had had planned on wearing plus a knitted green and white hat with a Michigan State "S" on it that my lovely grandmother made for me while I was in college roughly 20 years ago. I planned on tossing it aside (sorry Grandma) when I warmed up after a few miles, I finished the race in that hat and even used it as a bag to tote post race edible goodies they give you after the finish line.

I was true to my word and finished even though it would have been very easy to walk off the course at mile 18 when every thing was going wrong: I had just let the 3:10 pace group go and was moving to a slower pace much earlier than expected if I wanted Boston then within a minute incredible pain hit my thighs. It felt as though I hadn't trained at all, I expected my legs to hurt but nothing like this and I still had 8.2 miles to go! I am still trying to figure out what happened and why it was so sudden. I am pretty sure I tried to go too fast and when I bonked the cold weather then played a major factor in accelerating the pain and tightness in my legs. Even though I was holding a great pace early I never got into a real comfort zone.

To make matters worse I missed my cheering section completely and they missed me. They were took photos of 2 of the 3 3:10 pacers and I was right with the third. They were at mile 14, if we had seen each other they could have gone 2 block over and saw me again around mile 16 where they were absolutely no fans (the only stretch of the course without fans). I could have used the encouragement the would have given me at mile 16.

In the end I did what I set out to do - Finish! And I have a big honkin' medal to prove it.